Planes
Elysium The plane in which all players and AI contenders spawn in. In all on-land parts of Elysium, you may find these sites: Farm, Hoburg Village, Hamlet, Village, Town, Port, City, Capitolum, Watchtower, Tower, King's Castle, Coal Mine, Iron Mine, Silver Mine, Gold Vein, Gold Mine, Graveyard, Gallows, Old Battlefield, Ancient Temple, Ancient Forest, Swamp, Colossus, Magic Library, Academy of Higher Magic, Gem Deposit, hoburg manufactury, palace of the mountain lord The northern parts of Elysium are covered in snow and - generally speaking - are less defended by the Independents. Aside from regular sites, you may find Iron Bogs (swamps that produce one iron, as well as Fungi or Herbs for appropriate classes). Due to the never-ending winter, it's harder to move without Snow Movement. The middle parts of Elysium are mostly plains. This is where the most Farms, Hamlets, Villages, Towns and Cities spawn. Usually you'll find Forest tiles, surrounding an Ancient Forest there, which constantly spawns beast-type Independents, as well as Brigand Camps spawning Slingers and Bandits. The southern parts of Elysium are deserts and plains. Aside from generally lesser number of settlements, there are Jungles instead of Forests and in addition to occasional brigands you'll find villages of savage tribes and pygmies. The roaming animals change to Elephants and Scorpions. Within the deserts, you may find: Desert Palace, Ziggurat, Pyramid. The oceans of Elysium are occasionally hiding Gem Deposits and Coral Reefs. Agartha The cavern realm. It can be reached by: Pale One, Warlock, Necromancer, Dwarf Queen, High Cultist, or Demonologist. Pale One's method of entry: Cave Grubs (Minor Summoning of the Deep) - Tunnel Downwards - produces a gateway. Warlock's method of entry: Champion of Earth may Pass Through the Earth Downwards, while King of Earth may either do the same or Tunnel Downwards. A Warlock of Earth may also summon a Purple Worm; simply having it in one's army will allow any commander to tunnel downwards. Necromancer's method of entry: Tartarian Spirit may Pass Through the Earth Downwards. It cannot take units without Passwall. Dwarf Queen's method of entry: Portal of Dvalin cast by Daughters of Dvalin connects a citadel to a room with an Ancient Statue of Dvalin. Without help from your allies, you'll not be able to do dig through the realm. High Cultist's method of entry: VERY ROUNDABOUT! A starspawn may enter the Void and seek out a portal to the Nexus or the Elemental Plane of Earth. From there, there's a Gateway connecting the Citadel of the Mountains to the Elemental Plane. (Technically any class can theoretically do this if they can swim off the edge of Elysium with amphibious units, but any commander not native to the Void will very rapidly go insane once there, and refuse to move anymore.) Demonologist's method of entry: VERY TIME CONSUMING AND EXPENSIVE. After summoning the demon lord Orcus, you can have him make a major summoning until you get a Tartarian Spirit, which may Pass Through the Earth Downwards. It cannot take units without Passwall. Occasionally, you'll find natural pits leading to Agartha; anyone can use these, although those without passwall or tunneling troops may not be able to get far down there. Most of the realm is simply Cave Wall tiles, which have to either be dug through with Tunneling units, or passed through with Passwall units. Both methods take a very long time, but there are benefits. There may be three citadels in Agartha, such as the Citadel of the Mountain King and the Sealed Chamber (probably best left alone), which means if you manage to dig your way to them and take one of them back from the Independents, you'll be invulnerable to the players without any access to Agartha. There are Gem Deposits and Crystal Forests, giving you income and gems once you take them, and if your army is amphibious, you can flood the entire Plane by digging through the walls to the ocean. Agartha also does not have deserts, tundra, or seasonal snowfall, so any existing or pre-excavated tunnels can potentially be useful as underground highways for long-distance travel (provided one has a way to return to the surface at the desired location). Inferno The demon realm. It can be reached by all the classes, who can reach Agartha and by the Demonologist. Demonologist's method of entry: Simple. Infernal Gate ritual, or Personal Gate ritual. Other's method of entry: Tunnel/Pass Through the Earth Downwards in Agartha. Inferno is a very hostile place and full of benefits to everyone - except for the Demonologist. All the settlement types present in Elysium are there in Inferno, with the added suffix 'of Sinners'. These settlements do not ever produce Sacrifices, however there are various mines that produce a lot of gold and gems. There may also be an Old Battlefield or two scattered around. The terrain is mainly snow and ice, water, lava, or ashen fields. All of the important sites (citadels, mines with big income) are guarded by a Demon Lieutenant and at least 20 demons. Settlements have guardians in the form of Sinners, who wander to the nearby Infernal Towers, bolstering it's defenses. A Witch can sometimes reach the Inferno by discovering swamps in the Inferno using her ability to detect and teleport to them; however, the existence of inferno swamps is not strictly guaranteed. Bear in mind that Inferno is often patrolled by very dangerous armies made up of various infantry, lesser demons, and lots of Hellhounds led by greater demons. These patrolling armies are fairly belligerent and are extremely difficult for many classes to defeat, so tread carefully. This is especially true if an insane cultist has opened an Infernal portal in Elysium at any point, as doing so seems to greatly agitate the forces of Inferno and cause them to roam around and pick fights much more aggressively, even once the portal is closed. Aside from the Demon Lords' Citadels, there's always an Infernal version of the Capitolum. On rare occasion, '''Spell Scrolls can teleport the magic user attempting to use them to Inferno, stating "There was something wrong with the Spell Scroll." Void The horror realm. It can be reached by swimming through the edge of the map, tunneling down from Inferno, or stepping into the gaps between the Elemental Planes. While not as hostile in nature as Inferno, it can be even more threatening in the long run. Commanders who end up there - excluding those native to it - may lose up to 99 sanity per turn. There's a chance you'll be teleported from where you stand to another location in the Void every few turns. The place is also literally swarming with Horrors. As such, if you get lucky, survive the horror's onslaught and somehow find the gateway to Elysium or the Nexus, chances are your surviving soldiers and probably the commander himself has been Horrormarked to hell and beyond. Which means there'll be horrors coming up from the Void through similiar sites that you used to return and lock onto you, like a tentacly nuclear missile. In other words: Don't go in there, unless you have a Starspawn commanding an army of horrors yourself. Then you might be even able to conquer the void and all the other planes from there. Commanders capable of exploring the Void without going insane include: Starspawn, Void Lords, Yithian Sages, and Ether Lords. Note that Ether Lords are available to any class, if they conquer the Nexus at the center of the Elemental Plane; however, doing so makes exploring the Void somewhat redundant, since its most useful feature is its backdoor gate to the Elemental Nexus itself. Hades The underworld. Only Barbarian, Witch, Demonologist and Necromancer can access this plane. Hades is a mirror-world of the Elysium. Everything there looks the same as in Elysium, except dead. The settlements do not give out Hands of Glory, but the Swamps still produce fungi and herbs - something that can be exploited by a Witch or Barbarian. The mines in Hades are usually guarded by Tartarian Spirits, Dark Citadels by Wraiths or Banes, settlements by Ghosts. Shades, Dispossessed Spirits, Ghouls and Spirits roam the Underworld and one of the Demon Lords waits in Sheol. There's also a Ghost-version of the Capitoleum in both Empire and Fallen Empire ages, though it tends to be extremely heavily defended by very powerful spirits. Barbarian's method of entry: all of the ancestor spirit units can plane shift from Elysium into Hades, or vice versa, at any time. Witch's method of entry: upon successfully reincarnating as an immortal Bog Witch, the Witch gains some necromantic abilities Demonologist's method of entry: the Demon Lord Orcus has access to Necromancer rituals. Necromancer's method of entry: multiple Necromancy rituals that permit looking into and entering Hades, as well as a handful of units (the various Shades in particular) capable of plane shifting at will. An ordinary Necromancer can only cast Stygian Paths to temporarily enter Hades for rapid travel, but a Grand Necromancer can cast Planar Swap to permanently enter or leave Hades - with his entire army in tow - at any time (and to banish any units at his destination to the location he just left, possibly enabling cooperative planar travel in a multiplayer game). Additionally, any ethereal undead unit is capable of plane shifting to Hades with any other ethereal units in their army, at will, for just 1 AP. This is mostly useful to the Necromancer (who can turn into a Plane Shifting ghost by using Twiceborn at a graveyard), but in a few situations, other sides can benefit from it as well. Note that once you've successfully reached Hades by any method, recruiting a ghostly commander (sometimes available from any Hades settlement) will let you go back. Note that '''Hades is very inhospitable to living creatures! Most mortal creatures will lose health every turn and never naturally recover health as long as they remain on this plane. Even a huge and very powerful army can rapidly wither and dwindle to nothing in the realm of the dead, so if you are planning to explore it, try to do so with an army made up entirely of undead, constructs, and other Hades-immune units. Elemental Planes The Elemental Planes are actually a single plane divided into four quadrants, one for each element. The fire plane is covered with lava, making it dangerous to traverse without fire resistance; the water plane is covered with ice and water; the air plane is composed of clouds (which, though they can be walked on, are slow going), and the earth plane is a network of tunnels. Each plane has three citadels within it for its Elemental Royalty. At the center-pointing corner of each plane is a portal leading to a central Nexus, but you'll have to fight a Wheel of Frost and Flame and a Wheel of Stone and Storm at each gate if you pass through. The Nexus itself is a citadel and a level three library. Additionally, citadels in each quadrant of the plane offers occasional random recruits of units of its element, while the central Nexus offers Ether Lords. Nobody has automatic, direct access to the Elemental Planes. However, portals to them are frequently found in Elysium, and and a guaranteed gate to the Earth plane is somewhere in Agartha. Additionally, there is always a one-way portal from the Void that leads directly to the Nexus, although finding it without units that can safely navigate the Void is difficult.